These are the notes of a set of four lectures which I gave at the 2012 CERN Summer School of Particle Physics. They cover the basic ideas of gauge symmetries and the phenomenon of spontaneous symmetry breaking which are used in the construction of the Standard Model of the Electro-Weak Interactions.
In this note we present an example of an extension of the Standard Model where unification of strong and electroweak interactions occurs at a level comparable to that occurring in the minimal supersymmetric standard model.
We study interactions of unparticles ${cal {U}}$ of dimension $d_{cal {U}}$ due to Georgi with Standard Model (SM) fields through effective operators. The unparticles describe the low energy physics of a non-trivial scale invariant sector. Since unparticles come from beyond the SM physics, it is plausible that they transform as a singlet under the SM gauge group. This helps tremendously in limiting possible interactions. We analyze interactions of scalar ${cal {U}}$, vector ${cal {U}}$$^mu$ and spinor ${cal {U}}$$^s$ unparticles with SM fields and derivatives up to dimension four. Using these operators, we discuss different features of producing unparticles at $e^+ e^-$ collider and other phenomenologies. It is possible to distinguish different unparticles produced at $e^+e^-$ collider by looking at various distributions of production cross sections.
Recently, we have found an exact solution to the full set of Dyson-Schwinger equations of the non-interacting part of the Higgs sector of the Standard Model obtained by solving the 1-point correlation function equation. In this work we extend this analysis considering also the other possible solution that is the one experimentally observed in the Standard Model. Indeed, the same set of Dyson-Schwinger equations can be exactly solved for the Standard Model with a constant as a solution for the 1-point correlation function. Differently from the Standard Model solution, the one we have found has a mass spectrum of a Kaluza-Klein particle. This could be a clue toward the identification of a further space dimension. Gap equations are obtained in both cases as also the running self-coupling equations.
The tremendous phenomenological success of the Standard Model (SM) suggests that its flavor structure and gauge interactions may not be arbitrary but should have a fundamental first-principle explanation. In this work, we explore how the basic distinctive properties of the SM dynamically emerge from a unified New Physics framework tying together both flavour physics and Grand Unified Theory (GUT) concepts. This framework is suggested by the gauge Left-Right-Color-Family Grand Unification under the exceptional $mathrm{E}_8$ symmetry that, via an orbifolding mechanism, yields a supersymmetric chiral GUT containing the SM. Among the most appealing emergent properties of this theory is the Higgs-matter unification with a highly-constrained massless chiral sector featuring two universal Yukawa couplings close to the GUT scale. At the electroweak scale, the minimal SM-like effective field theory limit of this GUT represents a specific flavored three-Higgs doublet model consistent with the observed large hierarchies in the quark mass spectra and mixing already at tree level.
The goal of these lectures is to introduce readers with a basic knowledge of undergraduate physics (specifically non-relativistic quantum mechanics, special relativity, and electromagnetism) to the `current theory of everything: the Standard Model of particle of physics. By the end of the course, readers should be able to make predictions for simple processes at the Large Hadron Collider, such as decay rates of the Higgs boson. Some discussion of the ongoing search for physics beyond the Standard Model is also included. Based on lectures given at the Universities of Cambridge (UK) and Canterbury (New Zealand).